Marx's class
analysis needs to be refurbished for our purposes. He took it from
Ricardo's refinement of classical political economy: three classes
landlords, capitalists and workers, each with property in one of the three
things that matter: land (nature), capital (money or society, says Polanyi)
and labour (humanity). To which Marx adds machines as the hitherto
unrecognized element.
--Well, since the arrival of the machines, an immense
professional-managerial class has emerged along with the corporations and
the social state. It includes all of us who use computers, I would say. One
of the things I have learned by doing some reading of social history over
the 20th century is that this "class" a. exists and b. is denied by the
majority of leftist social theorists - making their theories almost useless
for coming to grips with contemporary society....
Great 1970s article on this by John and Barbera Ehrenreich right here:
http://messhall.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ehrenreichs_Professional-Mana
gerial-Class1.pdf
http://messhall.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ehrenreichs_Professional-Mana
gerial-Class2.pdf
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